


Of Charcoal and Stardust

by inthestars



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clexa, Commander Lexa, Heda, Poetry, clexakru - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 07:11:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6601642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inthestars/pseuds/inthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A girl with sun loved skin and flower threaded hair lost beneath war-paint and duty. Beneath it all, though, survives a pure light that is so distinctly <i>you<i>.</i></i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Peace May You Leave This Shore

**Author's Note:**

> I'm no Clarke Griffin, and I've never been able to make art with my hands. The only medium I've ever been able to paint with is lettered ink on paper, so this is my language effigy to Lexa. I wrote it as if it came from Clarke's brain. Nearly a month and a half after her death, I'm still mourning the loss of a character that felt more like a friend. 
> 
> \-----  
>  _Yu gonplei ste odon, Leksa kom Trikru _.__  
>  \-----
> 
>  
> 
> __  
> If something is too vague or difficult to understand, I'll try to explain if you ask. Check endnotes for word definitions and backstories. Comments are welcomed and appreciated! :)  
> 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tiny Lexa as I imagined her to be.

Flower threaded hair,  
green freckled irises,  
sun loved skin,  
Innocence was your kindred spirit.

Age turns like the seasons,  
and seasons become cold.  
You vowed never to let your age  
ice your soul.

They say some souls are old,  
and the pages of yours have  
turned a calm sapient sepia

dyed by the wisdom  
of other pasts whose present  
became your temporary home.

Houses built of duty and honor,  
beams fashioned to support a people,  
furnace burning on tradition,  
their souls and yours intertwined in the foundations.

To the girl with flowers in her hair  
and sweetness in her eyes,  
these details are of no consequence.

Someday soon, she will learn:  
her bones are the beams,  
her heart is the flame for her people.  
These homes were not made for her.


	2. In Love May You Find The Next

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa's transition and life as Heda.

Reincarnate Queen,  
the title falls heavy on your small frame.  
Even so, Duty becomes your closest advisor.

You have bone marrow borrowed  
from leaders past, those that built the  
backbone of your kingdom.

Your eyes are haunted,  
ghosted by responsibility you never asked for,  
but have always accepted.

The rage of a hundred years worth of suffering  
skips across the faces you vowed to protect.  
Soon it will become war-paint.

You have the blood of seasoned  
warriors that spills through and from  
your veins, colors your fury.

An unseen battled wages beneath  
your stoic mask: tradition of revenge  
pitted against desire for peace.

Beneath it all, though,  
survives a pure light that is so  
distinctly _you _.__

Commander, you may be  
but you’ve never been naïve to the  
conundrum of power.  
There can be no leading unless your people follow.

Will your people follow  
if you ask them to abandon their  
history, ignore their customs?


	3. Safe Passage On Your Travels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa as Clarke sees her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine this section to be Clarke and Lexa in the forest before a battle. Just the two of them and a fire.

Ineffable night-dark saturated  
thin slit spaces between  
close-quarter bark.

I’m not sure if I ever believed  
in greek thieves and gods but  
that night, Prometheus danced at our fingertips—

battled the shadows and demons  
away, if only for a haven minute.   
Smoke spired hazy contrail

toward pine needle edged windows  
whose panes revealed  
pinprick galaxy painted mythology.

Perseus and Hercules saved   
nations. Heroes so great, the gods hung  
pictures of them in the sky.

Beneath their star-studded likeness  
you, the warrior, churn  
embers and thoughts.

Sparks disturbed from cinder  
collect and light in the air around you,  
transform you into earthbound celestial cartography,  
though you do not notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helpful tidbits:
> 
> Ineffable: too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.
> 
> Prometheus: Titan who stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to mankind
> 
> Contrail: vapor trail (commonly noticed as the trail that follows planes in the sky)
> 
> Perseus and Hercules are both greek heroes who also are constellations.
> 
> Celestial Cartography: fringe of astronomy that involves mapping stars


	4. Until Our Final Journey On The Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before, during, and after the battle.

Coals fade to ash in time with  
the rising sun.  
You coat your fingers in charcoal,  
smear it across your eyes.

A girl with sun loved skin and flower threaded hair  
lost beneath war-paint and duty.  
Eos, Ares, and You  
arise in perfect syzygy.

You march.  
You march to avenge the dead,  
You march to satiate the living.

Each of your sword falls cut another  
scar into your guilt laden back.  
Each defeated foe adds a new ghost  
to your conscience.

But the dead are gone,  
the living are hungry,  
and you must shoulder both their burdens.

When the hate has settled,  
when the blood runs like tar over  
bodies and dirt,  
when the grime coats your fingertips

your armor, your hair,  
you allow yourself to acknowledge  
the ephemeral victory, before uncertainty…  
is all this death really victory?

beneath the war-paint and grit  
survives a light that is so  
distinctly _you _.__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helpful Tidbits:
> 
> Eos: Greek Goddess of dawn
> 
> Ares: Greek God of War
> 
> Syzygy (sizijē): the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar eclipse) in a gravitational system.


	5. May We Meet Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke sees Lexa after the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope this does Lexa's character justice.

Blood that weighs heavy on your heart  
but has never seen its chambers  
mixes with charcoal and salt,  
drip dries on your cheeks.

Green freckled irises meet mine,  
stare me down from behind  
the mask of a warrior.

You do not fool me, though.  
Filth of war covers your body,  
yet your petrichor scented skin   
miraculously lingers.

You were born of the earth,  
contented to feel the soil beneath your feet,  
how were you supposed to unite ground and sky?

Atlas led the Titans to battle the Olympians,  
Commander, like you,   
warrior, like you.

He shouldered the sky as punishment  
the way you shoulder the earth  
as obligation.

I don’t know if I’ve ever  
believed in greek gods or thieves,  
but I do believe in you.

Heroes are all well and good,  
but constellation consolations  
can’t hold a flame to  
the girl who was born of the earth

but aspired to make peace with the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helpful Tidbits:
> 
> Petrichor: the scent that follows a hard rain on dry soil 
> 
> Atlas: Titan that led the other Gods to battle the Olympians; he lost the battle and was forced to hold the sky on his shoulders as punishment


End file.
